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Missing Pages of European History
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Seminars and Colloquia
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Ivan VejvodaTeresa Reiter
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Series: Seminars and Colloquia
Many people agree that the European Union’s enlargement process is flawed. As a consequence, none of the aspiring EU members meet their targets on the path to membership on time and some do not meet them at all. While Europeans spent a lot of money, time and energy to improve life the region for decades, it is equally true that Europeans made decisions that affected the Western Balkans negatively, too. However, when European history is discussed in the context of the European Union, it is usually mainly about how the treaties were negotiated, how the European institutions developed, and about the vision of the leaders who envisaged the European Union. There are pages missing from the European history book. Arguably, this approach of not dealing with its own role, interests and past with the Western Balkans could be seen as having a negative impact on the enlargement policy the European Union is pursuing today.
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Series: Seminars and Colloquia
Many people agree that the European Union’s enlargement process is flawed. As a consequence, none of the aspiring EU members meet their targets on the path to membership on time and some do not meet them at all. While Europeans spent a lot of money, time and energy to improve life the region for decades, it is equally true that Europeans made decisions that affected the Western Balkans negatively, too. However, when European history is discussed in the context of the European Union, it is usually mainly about how the treaties were negotiated, how the European institutions developed, and about the vision of the leaders who envisaged the European Union. There are pages missing from the European history book. Arguably, this approach of not dealing with its own role, interests and past with the Western Balkans could be seen as having a negative impact on the enlargement policy the European Union is pursuing today.
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Narrative Making in the European Capital
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Seminars and Colloquia
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Ivan VejvodaJulia De Clerck-Sachsse
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Series: Seminars and Colloquia
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Series: Seminars and Colloquia
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North Macedonia As A Test-Case For Europe’s Credibility
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Panels and Discussions
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Ivan VejvodaRuzha SmilovaZoran NechevNikola Dimitrov
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Series: Panels and Discussions
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Series: Panels and Discussions
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People of the Mountain
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Seminars and Colloquia
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Ivan VejvodaKapka Kassabova
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Series: Seminars and Colloquia
For millennia, the people of the Mesta Valley have lived in an intimate relationship with their environment. Kapka Kassabova's enquiry is into the nature of this relationship as it survives today, after a succession of mass traumas in the 20th century have made their mark. They include political persecution during Communism, economic upheaval in the wake of the collapse of the planned economy, environmental degradation during and after Communism, migration, endemic state corruption, climate change, and a generational shift from a traditional, agricultural way of life towards a globalised, digitalised, uprooted way of life. His focus is on the Pomak (indigenous Muslim) and mixed villages here. An interesting phenomenon can be observed: permanent emigration is rare. These communities are held together by invisible factors that cannot be accounted for by pure economics.
The villages of the Mesta Valley are remarkable for several things: their exceptionally rich biosphere where some of Europe’s cleanest foods, animals, and medicinal herbs thrive; their rich tradition of cultural syncretism; their existential endurance in the face of trauma, and the fact that they export the greatest amount of cheap seasonal labour to Western Europe – the fruit pickers, planters, and builders on whom the wealthier European economies depend.
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Series: Seminars and Colloquia
For millennia, the people of the Mesta Valley have lived in an intimate relationship with their environment. Kapka Kassabova's enquiry is into the nature of this relationship as it survives today, after a succession of mass traumas in the 20th century have made their mark. They include political persecution during Communism, economic upheaval in the wake of the collapse of the planned economy, environmental degradation during and after Communism, migration, endemic state corruption, climate change, and a generational shift from a traditional, agricultural way of life towards a globalised, digitalised, uprooted way of life. His focus is on the Pomak (indigenous Muslim) and mixed villages here. An interesting phenomenon can be observed: permanent emigration is rare. These communities are held together by invisible factors that cannot be accounted for by pure economics.
The villages of the Mesta Valley are remarkable for several things: their exceptionally rich biosphere where some of Europe’s cleanest foods, animals, and medicinal herbs thrive; their rich tradition of cultural syncretism; their existential endurance in the face of trauma, and the fact that they export the greatest amount of cheap seasonal labour to Western Europe – the fruit pickers, planters, and builders on whom the wealthier European economies depend.
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Russia’s and China’s Presence in the Western Balkans: Perceptions vs Realities
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Panels and Discussions
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Dimitar BechevIvan VejvodaValbona ZeneliSaša Mirković, Milica Uvalić, Mirjana Tomić, Daniela Kraus
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Series: Panels and Discussions
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Series: Panels and Discussions
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Shifting Sands: The Lure of “Alignments a la Carte” and the True Meaning of “America is Back”
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Lecture
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Soli ÖzelIvan Krastev
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Series: Lecture
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Series: Lecture
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Struggle for the Arctic: Climate Change, Economy, Security
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Panels and Discussions
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Ivan VejvodaRasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen, Guðfinna Aðalgeirsdóttir, Ksenia Vakhrusheva, Cristopher Robert Rossi, Mirjana Tomic
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Speakers: Ivan VejvodaRasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen, Guðfinna Aðalgeirsdóttir, Ksenia Vakhrusheva, Cristopher Robert Rossi, Mirjana Tomic
Series: Panels and Discussions
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Speakers: Ivan VejvodaRasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen, Guðfinna Aðalgeirsdóttir, Ksenia Vakhrusheva, Cristopher Robert Rossi, Mirjana Tomic
Series: Panels and Discussions
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Tackling Disinformation in Central Europe and the Western Balkans
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Panels and Discussions
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Ivan KrastevIvan VejvodaMisha GlennyRastislav Káčer, Michal Klíma, Adelheid Wölfl, Jasna Jelisić, Vuk Vuksanović, Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, Shilten Palathunkal, Katarína Klingová, Stefan Vospernik
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Speakers: Ivan KrastevIvan VejvodaMisha GlennyRastislav Káčer, Michal Klíma, Adelheid Wölfl, Jasna Jelisić, Vuk Vuksanović, Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, Shilten Palathunkal, Katarína Klingová, Stefan Vospernik
Series: Panels and Discussions
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Speakers: Ivan KrastevIvan VejvodaMisha GlennyRastislav Káčer, Michal Klíma, Adelheid Wölfl, Jasna Jelisić, Vuk Vuksanović, Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, Shilten Palathunkal, Katarína Klingová, Stefan Vospernik
Series: Panels and Discussions
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The Challenge of Technocracy
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Panels and Discussions
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Ivan VejvodaStefan AuerHans Kundnani , Nicole Scicluna
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Series: Panels and Discussions
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Series: Panels and Discussions
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The EU Periphery and Revisionist Powers
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Seminars and Colloquia
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Dimitar BechevIvan Vejvoda
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Series: Seminars and Colloquia
Starting with the annexation of Crimea in the spring of 2014, scholars and analysts have been debating the standoff between the West and competitors such as Russia, Erdogan’s Turkey, and lately China on Europe’s periphery. “The return of geopolitics” has become a standard phrase to describe the new moment in the international politics of Eastern and Southeast Europe. A contrast is drawn with the 2000s, the highmark of the European Union’s “transformative power” and NATO’s eastward expansion. But the top-down view highlighting the preferences and actions of big players, including core EU member states like Germany and France, Russia, Turkey etc. overlooks the critical role played by peripheral countries and their elites. Rather than being the object of great powers’ decisions, they manipulate rivalries in pursuit of political advantage. Though the domestic arena provides entry points for external actors’ influence it also empowers incumbent elites in the target countries. The talk drew on examples from Southeast Europe (the Western Balkans, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece) but drew parallels to the post-Soviet space.
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Series: Seminars and Colloquia
Starting with the annexation of Crimea in the spring of 2014, scholars and analysts have been debating the standoff between the West and competitors such as Russia, Erdogan’s Turkey, and lately China on Europe’s periphery. “The return of geopolitics” has become a standard phrase to describe the new moment in the international politics of Eastern and Southeast Europe. A contrast is drawn with the 2000s, the highmark of the European Union’s “transformative power” and NATO’s eastward expansion. But the top-down view highlighting the preferences and actions of big players, including core EU member states like Germany and France, Russia, Turkey etc. overlooks the critical role played by peripheral countries and their elites. Rather than being the object of great powers’ decisions, they manipulate rivalries in pursuit of political advantage. Though the domestic arena provides entry points for external actors’ influence it also empowers incumbent elites in the target countries. The talk drew on examples from Southeast Europe (the Western Balkans, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece) but drew parallels to the post-Soviet space.
Read more
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